iCan't Live Like This
by Holly-Anne
Summary: Carly has began to close herself up and Sam doesn't understand why. Sam hates the thought that she could lose Carly, but she has secrets of her own and Spencer is in on it all. While everyone seems to leave Freddie in the dark.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own iCarly.

**Chapter One**

The sun was shining through the slips of window, acting as an alarm clock for the slender blonde girl sprawled across a plush couch in what appeared to be a living room. It was a bit hard to tell, as the room was full of obnoxious sculptures, paintings, and odd objects scattered across the room. The blonde girl slowly opened her eyes, squinting at first to adjust them to the new light that poured in, sending rays in every which direction. A small, tired sound escaped her lips as she stretched her arms out above her head. Groggily, she sat up and looked around. Taking her index and middle finger, she rubbed the sleepies out of the corners of her eyes and began to get up. Samantha Puckett, as that was the girl's name, began to get up from the couch, throwing the blankets onto the ground. Yawning, she wondered why she always got up so early, it's not really like she wanted to, but the light always woke her up in the morning. Curse that sun!

Samantha looked around the room, nothing she was really un - familiar with, other than a developing sculpture laying on the coffee table. A small smile crept up on Samantha's lips. See, Samantha practicially lived at her best friend, Carly Shay's apartment. Carly was taken care of by her older, twenty - eight year old brother, Spencer. Spencer had dropped out of law school, for some reason unknown to Samantha to create art. Spencer was obsessed, and every day he had a new muse, a new reason to make something new. Wires and pipe cleaners ordained this new work of art. Samantha knealt down beside it, her unkept hair fell over her shoulders, she didn't mind it, but gently brushed through it with her fingers. One hand ran through her hair and the other picked up the wire and pipe cleaner figure, inspecting it.

"Like it, huh?"

The voice startled her, she swore that even though, on her knees, she jumped twenty stories in the air. Her stomach flopped and she quickly turned around, the figure hung loosely in her fingers. "Spencer," she breathed. Samantha's normally porceline skin was flushed red with embarassment, but she coyly laughed it off.

"Sorry, Sam," he said, calling her by her nickname. "I really didn't mean to scare you." He smiled slightly, as he reached out his hand. Sam looked at it, puzzled for a second. "Sam," he whispered, "can I have my pipe cleaner, wire thingy?"

Sam laughed slightly, "Yeah, here, sure." She placed it gently in his up turned palm and got up, wiping her jeans off with quick brushes of her hands. "So, Spence, buddy, ol' pal, what do we have for breakfast this fine morning?" Sam said as she seemed to jump across the room to the bar area and sat down in a cherry, red stool.

Spencer stood where he had been, looking at his "art", tweaking it, whatever he seemed to do. "I'm not sure," he muttered, "why don't you look in the fridge?" His head popped up quickly, then he turned to her, a sparkle in his eye. Sam liked that sparkle, it meant she got to test out something new, an invention, and those, were always, fun.

"Oh goody!" Sam cheered, spinning around quickly in the stool. "What do we have today Mr. Spencer? A bacon maker? Seriously, I really don't know how they do it. It's like, fried fat! I've always wanted to try it homemade, but c'mon. Kill a pig? I think not! I'm not that patient! Of course, you probably knew that..." Sam was aware of her rambling, something she did quite often, and it helped her wake up in the morning. She turned to Spencer. "So, what is it?"

Spencer shook his head. "I'll be right back."

Sam shrugged and looked down at her fingernails, picking the dirt out from under her nails. Her attention was soon distracted, however, when she heard footsteps clattering down the stairs. "Oh, hey Carly," Sam said, as her dark haired friend came into sight. Sam's cheerful expression soon dropped, however, when she her friend with a twisted scowl on her face. "What?" Sam shrugged, cocking her head.

"Sam!" Carly screamed, "We have to be at school in fifteen minutes and you're not even ready!" Carly groaned as she sat down on the stairs and quickly slipped on a pair of red and black flats. "Where's Spencer?" Carly asked, annoyed.

Sam groaned. Everything had changed so drastically in the past two years. Sam felt like Carly was moving on, leaving her behind. They were still best friends and they still had a hit web - show, a year and a half old. The two still acted silly on the show, but that seemed like it was it. Carly was so uptight and she had so many opinions now, she was becoming interested in politics and presidential issues. Carly had become quiet and reserved, as well. She really only seemed to put on an act for the web - show, and nothing more.Things that just down right put Sam to sleep. Sam didn't want to say it, but she was starting to think that Carly was becoming well, mature. Sam, well, she was mature too, but in different ways, or at least that's how she'd like to say it. Sam had changed a lot too, since high school first began, exactly a year ago.

"You know," Sam began to say, "I was thinking that I may just, well, skip the first day of sophomore year. School, it was never my thing."

"Sam!" Carly growled, she sounded like a sick cat.

Same just rolled her eyes. "Fine, if it makes you happy. I can just wear what I wore yesterday and quickly brush my hair and put it in a clip. Would that make you happy, Carly?"

"...and?" Carly said, motioning with her hand to Sam that there was more than just those first simple essence of getting ready.

"I'll brush my teeth with Spencer's toothbrush?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow. Was that the answer?

"Ew, but good enough," Carly sighed. A small smile was apparant on her lips, but it quickly turned to disgust when she seemed to catch onto some of what Sam had saidearlier. "The same clothes?Sam, you've been wearing those clothes for the past two days!"

Sam shrugged. "So? Only you, Freddie, and Spencer have seen me in these clothes, so does it really matter? Who cares?" Sam winked at Carly andquickly got up, running past Carly on the stairs. The quick wind from her sprinting up the stairs sent a swift breeze, making a strand of Carly's hair float in mid - air for a second. Carly watched it and shrugged.

Spencer soon came bursting through a door connected through thekitchen. A heavy looking appliance in his arms. "Hey," he said, sounding surprised, "where did Sam go?" He placed the appliance on the counter and looked around, scratching the back of his head. "I wanted her to try out my Super, Deluxe Breakfast Maker."

Carly rolled her eyes. "My gosh! Spencer!" she shouted.

Her brother winced. "What did I do?"

"It's my first day ofsophomore year, Spencer! Why aren't you getting the car ready to take me to school?"

"That's today, isn't it?" Spencer said, inhaling deeply and chewing on his bottom lip. "I'll... get right on that!"

Carly shook her head and got up, heading up the stairs to get Sam. Sam was in the bathroom, putting her naturally blonde, curly hair into a clip. "Hey," Sam said, seeing Carly in the mirror, standing behind her. "time to go?"

Carly nodded, "Yeah, and we're going to be late. So let's go!"

Sam made a face, crinkling up her nose and sticking out her tongue. "Okay, bossy." Sam giggled slightly.

"I saw that!" Carly laughed, "You're suck a dork, Sam."

"Yeah, that's the point. I'm done anyways," Sam said as she finished putting the clip in her naturally curly hair and laid the brush on the sink. Carly motioned for her to follow and Sam did. The two girls took the elevator downstairs, seeing Spencer wasn't in the kitchen or living room, the two girls headed out the apartment's front door and rushed down the stairs to the lobby. They waved at the people passing by and headed out the door into the parking lot. Spencer was out front, sitting in his car, waiting for them. Spencer hadbought the car as a present for himself when he sold a painting for fifty - thousand dollars. Samalways said that somerich idiot saw a picture with paint splatters and thought it'd look good in their living room so they bought it. It didn't matter, Spencer was proud, got a cool car, and live was good.

"We're going to be late!" Carly panicked as the girls jumped into the car. Her eyes were wild as she glanced at the clock, nervously shaking her foot up and down. "It's seven - thirty! School starts in twenty minutes!"

"Chill," Spencer laughed, "little sister, it takes five minutes to school, you have pleanty of time!"

"It doesn't matter anyways," Sam scoffed, "no one is tardy on the first day of school because you're," she added air quotes, "'getting adjusted'." Sam blew a raspberry, "Adjusted, my butt! We know our way around school, but teachers are dumb."

Carly raised an eyebrow. "Not funny, Sam."

Sam sighed and looked down at her lap. Carly didn't laugh as much as she used to, or maybe Sam was just losing her touch. Either way, Sam didn't really want to dwell on it. She didn't like the thought that she may be losing the best friend she ever had to getting older, to the world, to realizing things. Sam looked out the window until they neared into the high school. Carly sprung out of the backseat, having given Sam the front.

"You coming?" Carly inquired as she grabbed her backpack and slung it over her shoulder.

"Yeah," Sam said rather fast, "I've got to organize my stuff, so I'll catch up with you, okay?"

Carly grinned. "Alright, then. I'll see you by my locker in a few minutes! Thanks, Spencer, for the ride." With that, Carly had spun on her heel and bounced right into the school. Sam and Spencer watched her and when she disappeared Spencer looked at Sam. Sam sighed and Spencer pulled out of the school's parking lot. Sam reached into her pocket and pulled out a small box and banged it on the dashboard a few times.

"You know," Spencer began, "that she's going to find out."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Sam sighed, a bit fed up with Spencer's "pep talks". Sam then opened the package and took out a thin, long, white cigarette and balanced it between her index and middle finger before slowly putting it to her lips. "What Carly doesn't know, won't hurt her."

"It will eventually," Spencer said quietly. "When she finds out that you've been keeping it from her, it'll just hurt her more."

"Shuttup Spencer," Sam said with a roll of her eyes, between the cigarette in her mouth. She arched her back and pulled out a purple lighter from her pocket and lit the cigarette up while Spencer rolled the window down. Sam exhauled a billow of smoke from the corner of her lips and flopped her hand out the window. "Don't yell at me for being irresponsible when you're the adult allowing me to smoke. You do this all the time. You drive around until I'm done so no one sees me, you spray the car to keep it from Carly because she's so dead set against stuff like this. I'm under age, and you're letting me smoke, Spence."

Spencer sighed. "I think that you guys need to make mistakes for yourselves. You're not going to listen to me anyways."

Sam took the cigarette and just put it back up to her lips. "Got that right, bud."


End file.
